Bibliography: #BIB27746

web link	bahai-library.com/bibliography/BIB27746
reference type	Book
title	I Don't Want to Be Tāhirih : Homosexuality in the Bahā’ī Religion in Theology and Practice
author	Langer, Hanna A.
year	2014
date	March 2014
publisher	tredition
place published	Hamburg
issue	13.
ISBN	9783732316540
abstract	"The relations between religion and sexuality have been understudied for a long period of time within German Study of Religion. This is remarkable for two reasons: Firstly, sex and gender are somewhat frequently discussed in almost any other field of research at present; secondly, many religions still have problems to accept homosexuality as a normal and permissible way of life. This is furthermore astonishing for the Bahā’ī Faith as it is often mentioned as a particularly tolerant and open minded religious community. Coming from a profound historical analysis of sexual practices in 19th century Iran and their understanding from a religious point of view Hanna Langer further exemplifies the Bahā’ī Institutions' attitude towards homosexuality and homosexuals and their standing within the Bahā’ī Community. The second part of the book focuses on three major aspects related to the experiences of homosexuals: How do homosexuals themselves interpret and understand the core writings? How do they apply this understanding to their personal lives? How do they experience community life within the Bahā’ī Faith and the Institutions' and believers' approach towards them?" - from the back cover. The author gathers a number of arguments current among those who want to change the Baha'i teachings on this subject. The author considers Shoghi Effendi's approach to be tied to the prejudices of his time and sees letters written on his behalf as not having normative value for the community. She attempts to find contradictions in statements by the Universal House of Justice and uses these to question the authority of statements by the Universal House of Justice on this topic. The author presents the experience of some gay Bahá'ís as support for her thesis that Bahá'í approaches to homosexuality emerge from cultural practices of 19th century Iran, and by implication, not from divine revelation.
notes	M.A. Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München Master thesis at the Interfaculty Programme for the Study of Religion at Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich and has been supervised by Prof Horst Junginger who also contributed a preface for the publication. Hanna A. Langer was raised in Dresden and studied Religion, Iranology and Crosscultural Communication at Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich.
language	English
keywords	HOMOSEXUALITY
number of pages	168
type of work	text
call number	BP368.1 .L35 2014 (BWC - COLLINS)

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